Fnatic Roster Changes And Net’s Inside Story Uncovering

The king of SEA DOTA2, Fnatic announced its roster change: Mushi, who took a break for a while due to health issues decided to come back. And they chose to turn Net into subs instead of 343 which found unacceptable by Net so he decided to quit.

“As we all know, our DOTA 2 team work incredibly hard, dare we say one of the hardest in eSports. The amount of tournaments and majors they attend is impressive, as well as the amount of practice they put in. With the amount of effort they put in, it comes as no surprise that the players need a break once in awhile.

Following the Shangai majors, DJ needed the take the week off to sort out his visa. We asked 343 to step up and play with us as a stand in. After doing so, and playing very well, both him and Fnatic agreed it would be a great idea to have him as a full time sub.

We then saw Mushi take a leave of absence due to his unfortunate health problems. With DJ coming back from his break, 343 once again stood in this time for Mushi. He really embraced the challenge and-over performed in almost every aspect. This was a great development for the team however there was an obvious problem being created by having 6 very talented played in a 5 man squad.

With Mushi now ready to return to the team, we had to make an extremely difficult choice about who to have in our starting line up. After analysing the situation, we decided it would be best to put 343 in the starting team and Net in the substitute position.

We want to stress that these kind of decisions is one the worst part of running multiple teams at this level. Net has been nothing but great to work with, dedicated and above all else a team player who deeply cares about the squad and the game. In an ideal world we would have kept him but this isn’t the world we live in.

Naturally, for a man with such talent and ambition, Net wanted to play for the starting line-up and decided to depart from Fnatic. We understand and respect his decision, and want to take this opportunity to thank him for all the hard work and wish him nothing but the best in the future. We will do what we can to help him with his next journey.

Here is what Net had to say:

Net

On the upcoming tournament event, you guys won't see my name in team fnatic, I have to thanks to Fnatic that gave me a chance to learn and also people who support me all the time.

We also caught up with the team’s manager Eric “Reinnnn” Khor

Eric “Reinnnn” Khor, Fnatic Dota 2 Manager

It is with a very heavy heart that we have to announce the departure of Net from our team. Through his time in Fnatic, I have gotten to know him a lot better and also the dedication that he put into the game. Generally a quiet person, it was a refreshing change to see Net went from the introvert that he is into the guy who cracks the joke. It really felt like a family here but we knew the inevitable was coming and someone had to be subbed out. After a lot of discussion, the team decided that Net would be the one to take the back seat. We would have loved him to stay with us but it is understandable that he would want to leave the team to pursue another opportunity. Here, I want to thank Net for all the joyous times and all his hard work. I wish him all the best for his future.

We’d like to also thank our fans for your patience and trust in our roster changes. We are always looking to improve and will continue to do so. “

One day later, Net released a long article on Weibo to uncover some inside stories on the roster change:

“Hello:

You guys should not see me in the following matches when I’m writing down this. I’m probably the most silent person in my career, which lasts for around 8 years. I seldom comment on things. But for this one, I want to speak out. I feel like I will regain my inner peace after suffering insomnia for so many days if I write something.

As you can see, after the Shanghai Major, Mushi decided to take a break. We thought it wasn’t a problem, even though we didn’t know when he was gonna come back. But we believed it wouldn’t take long just like we trusted each other at the beginning of our careers.

Coming back to Malaysia from Shanghai, our candidate was Xnova. We thought he was good enough to fill the gap, and we decided to let me carry and Xnova support. But surprisingly the new player was playing Epicenter qualifiers for his own teams, which had time conflict with our schedule, so we had to give up. Soon later, our manager contacted 343 and he would be the drafter. We did a very good job and won several important tournaments under this roster.

Soon here came our first LAN tournament without our captain, ESL One Manila. Our plan was to go to The Philippines in advance and get accustomed to the environment like food and climate, as well as our state of minds (we did the same thing before the Shanghai Major. Thanks our coach kenchi yap for dealing with all the things inside or outside the game). Luckily, we won the two matches in Manila group stage but lost to Wings later. We all were unhappy to end our journey in Manila in this way. We had dinner in our hotel and discussed about our next plan that night. I firstly asked whether Mushi came back, but Mushi said it was not proper to talk about it currently. Alright, it sounded reasonable.

In the morning next day, Ohy, 343, MidOne and I went back to Malaysia relaxing for couple of days and prepared for the coming matches. Dj and our manager stayed in The Philippines to deal with some stuff and Mushi went to the islands for a vocation. On 28th April, we all went back to our positions. As for 29th, it was an ordinary day, but the beginning of my nightmare. On that day, six people in my team (including the manager) discussed on the roster without me. At that night, ohy, Mushi and manager asked me to the 3rd floor to have a talk. I thought it was about the roster and schedule, but things didn’t happen like I thought before. I remembered the first sentence Mushi said was he decided to return and he said I had to be the subs. I even didn’t have time to react. And the reasons for the change made me speechless. Sorry I don’t want to explain too much about it here. “The decision is made by the team, you have to understand.” This sentence kept echoing in my mind, and I, didn’t get any chances to negotiate and object to it. The only thing I got from the manager was “sorry”.

All my time, sacrifices and efforts ended in a weird and cruel way. There isn’t any players with dreams willing to watch others to play games as subs. I watched other people playing TI , talking about matches last year due to some reasons. And now, I probably let you guys down once again. I can’t make any changes to it, no matter how hard I try. Perhaps I didn’t know a team had to win more and gain more in this way at the very beginning.

At last, I wanna say sorry to you. My journey has to end, sorry.

At the end of the last, I will still cheer for Fnatic, for Malaysia, fighting!”